An alarming six out of ten hospitals in Haiti are barely functioning as the recent escalation of violence in the capital, Port-Au-Prince, continues to deprive children of critical health supplies and medicines, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the non-governmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called on the armed groups involved in the fighting and Haitian authorities to facilitate the delivery of medical supplies to those in need.
Since late February, Port-au-Prince has been engulfed in unprecedented violence, with the Haitian capital cut off from the outside world following the closure of its airport and seaport. Amid the ongoing violence and isolation, Haiti's health system has been severely affected, leaving people without essential medical services.
According to UNICEF, every hospital in the country has reported difficulties in obtaining and maintaining essential medical supplies, as international and domestic cargo flights to and from Port-Au-Prince airports have only recently resumed, with limited capacity and a significant backlog, as has the main seaport, which was previously in the hands of armed groups.
“Haiti’s health system is on the verge of collapse,” said Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti, in a statement.
“The combination of violence, mass displacement, dangerous epidemics, and increasing malnutrition has bent Haiti’s health system, but the strangling of supply chains may be what breaks it.”
Since late February, coordinated attacks by armed gangs have targeted police stations, hospitals, schools, homes, churches, banks and commercial establishments, as well as the port and airport. Ongoing armed attacks and clashes between armed groups and police in some communities in Port-au-Prince are causing new displacements and forcing previously displaced people to flee again.
Containers of essential supplies have been attacked or looted, as have many warehouses and pharmacies. Meanwhile, hundreds of containers of humanitarian supplies remain stranded in Port-Au-Prince, including containers of neonatal, maternal, and medical supplies.
“We cannot allow vital supplies that could save children’s lives to remain blocked in warehouses and containers. They must be delivered now,” said Maes.
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti's main logistical hub, normally receives and dispatches the country's health imports. But with the city paralyzed by violence and more than 160,000 of its residents displaced, it is unable to meet the needs of a population struggling with both physical trauma and the risk of disease.
As of March, there were 362,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country, including 180,000 children and more than 150,000 women. Some 95,000 people fled Port-au-Prince between March 8 and April 9, 60 percent of them to the southern departments, due to the violence that has been raging since February 29.
Waves of displaced families seeking safety, particularly in the south of the country, are putting additional pressure on local health services, which were barely able to cope with demand before the latest escalation of the crisis.
Unsanitary conditions in the many displacement sites scattered throughout Port-au-Prince increase the risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera. Between October 2022 and April 2024, Haiti reported a total of 82,000 suspected cases of cholera and 1,270 deaths from cholera.
Staff shortages are widespread, with about 40 percent of all medical staff having left the country due to the extreme levels of insecurity. The arrival of the rainy season is expected to worsen the situation, bringing a rise in cases of water-borne disease as well as disease spread by mosquitos, such as malaria.
Despite the dire conditions, between May 18 and 21, UNICEF facilitated the delivery of 38 tons of life-saving supplies, including health and cholera kits and other essential medical supplies, to Haiti via a humanitarian air bridge from Panama to Cap-Haïtien. The air bridge was supported by the European Union and operated by the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN agency said.
Humanitarian agencies have established a logistics platform in Cap-Haïtien, where a secondary international airport and seaport remain operational. New supply lines have also been opened outside Port-au-Prince to ensure the delivery of humanitarian cargo.
However, in a separate statement on Tuesday, MSF said it has not been able to import any medical supplies since mid-March, while the escalating insecurity has severely disrupted MSF's medical operations.
MSF urged all armed groups involved in the fighting and the customs authorities to facilitate the delivery of medical supplies to civilians in dire need.
“If we do not receive our medical supply in the next two weeks, we will be forced to drastically reduce our operations,” Mumuza Muhindo Musubaho, MSF head of mission, said.
“We had to increase our capacity to cope with the influx of patients, but unfortunately, the enormous consumption of medications means that we are currently in short supply.”
The humanitarian organization said more than 30 medical centers and hospitals have shut their doors, including the largest, L'Hôpital de l'Université d'État d'Haïti, due to vandalism, looting, or because they are located in insecure areas.
“In this emergency situation, customs procedures need to be more flexible, so that medicines and other supply can be delivered as quickly as possible,” Musubaho said.
The closure of the airport and ports since February has left MSF's medical facilities critically undersupplied. Fighting between gangs around the capital's international airport forced all commercial airlines to suspend operations. On Monday, the airport reopened and some commercial flights resumed.
The United Nations says it is crucial that the airport is fully operational and the seaport reopened to ensure the entry of medicines and medical supplies into the country.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned that people are facing urgent medical and humanitarian needs as supplies for medical humanitarian organizations become increasingly scarce. People with chronic illnesses such as HIV and tuberculosis are at high risk of their conditions worsening due to lack of access to medical services and life-saving medicines.
Armed gangs now control or influence more than 90 percent of the capital and have spread to rural areas of the country. They have carried out massacres, kidnappings, human trafficking and sexual violence. Recent attacks and violence by armed groups have plunged Haiti into a dramatic security crisis, with civilians under fire far beyond the capital.
An estimated 2.7 million people, including 1.6 million women and children, live in areas under effective gang control. 3 million Haitian children caught up in rampant gang violence are in need of humanitarian assistance, including thousands who are at risk of dying from severe malnutrition. An estimated 1.2 million children are under threat in the greater Port-au-Prince area, according to UNICEF.
In the midst of a worsening security crisis, hunger in Haiti has reached unprecedented levels. Some 4.97 million people - nearly half the country's population - are now acutely food insecure, including more than 1.64 million at the emergency level, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
Further information
Full text: Violence sending shocks around Haiti’s collapsing health system, UNICEF, press release, published May 22, 2024
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/violence-sending-shocks-around-haitis-collapsing-health-system
Full text: Urgent need of medical supplies in Haiti as extreme violence isolates people in need, MSF, press release, published May 21, 2024
https://www.msf.org/urgent-need-medical-supplies-haiti-extreme-violence-isolates-people-need